Mini Hamburger Bento & Hijiki Bento

We made buns yesterday, so today's bento for yuppi is hamburger Bento.  Fillings are teriyaki chicken (yuppi's favorite) & bacon potato omelet, because I got a lot of bacon from hubby's mother.  And lettuce & purple radish sticks.  Made the buns using both flour & whole wheat flour.  It matches the omelet & the chicken well.

This bento's menu...  Sauteed hijiki, boiled spinach with okaka & syoyu, bacon potato omelet, pickled purple radish, chicken gratin (left for bento from last night's dinner).

Hijiki (a kind of seaweed) contains a lot of iron and minerals, and so, very good for athletes and anemia.  Sauteed the hijiki with pork & aburaage, shoyu & sugar.  It's a good item for rice.  This time, I tried long hijiki but anytime use short hijiki.  I don't like this long hijiki, it tastes strongly of hijiki.

Omerice Bento

Yesterday's bento, omerice & chikuten (chikuwa tempura) & fresh veggies & sweetie.  I love the harmony of fried rice & omelet.  Omerice has two variations.  The one is a fried rice wrapped with thin omelet, it's an orthodox type.  The other type is topped with soft-cooked omelet.  I love both types.  This time, made an orthodox one.  Made the fried rice with brown rice, onion, ham, ketchup, salt.  Chikuten is a good dish for bento, I love it.  Mixed the tempura batter with aonori (seaweed), so this chikuten tastes of aonori.  Chikuwa is a grilled fish paste.

Happy Christmas!

♪ So this is Christmas.  And what have you done.  Another year over.  A new one just begun.  And so this is Christmas.  I hope you have fun.  The near and the dear ones.  The old and the young... ♪

Are you having a happy Christmas night?  Now I'm thankful that we've had the calm year, and wishing the coming year to be bright and the whole world to be peaceful. 

Last night, Yuppi wondered whether Santa Claus was coming to her ,and frequently asked her dad about that.  Now it seems that he had come because she has got the present she requested him for. 

And today, we went to the Christmas festival.  There was cold but not lots of snow.  This glittering huge fir tree was presented by the sister city Halifax, Canada.  Every year, a huge fir tree is carried by cargo ship from Halifax.  We enjoyed the beautiful superb Christmas tree.  Yuppi so delighted in this event and we had a great time.  But I couldn't take a good shot with my tooo cold hands...

Makizuchi Bento & Omusubi Bento

Christmas Eve!  Have you prepared gifts?  I'm okay, but busy.  Everyone is busy.  I have to make a cake after this.  And tomorrow, the winter vacation of Yuppi's school begins.

Today's menu...  Makizushi (roll-sushi), teriyaki chicken, sauteed mushroom, veggies & grape.  The makizushi includes kanikama, omelet, edamame.

This is omusubi (onigiri) before packing in a bento box, yesterday's bento.  Fillings of these omusubi are sujiko (salmon roe), tarako (cod roe), grilled salty red salmon.  I love omusubi, it's a traditional typical and simple Japanese bento.  I think that a simple bento is the best in some cases.

Boo Santa Bento & Nikudon Bento

♪ On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, a partridge on a pear tree♪

Santa will come soon !!  How nice presents does Santa Claus send to kids all over the world?  I want a present, too!  Want to have a delicious bento, want someone to make it.  But after all, it's the best present to me that my family are all happy and healthy all the time.

Today's bento is Boo Santa.  Menu...  Nanbanzuke; fried chicken marinade ( marinated with soy, mirin, vinegar).  Spinach namul.  Lotus root marinade ( marinated with curry powder, salt, vinegar ).  Tamagoyaki ( include nori ).  And Santa's cap made of egg white & kanikama.  Namul is Korean boiled veggie salad.  Tartar sauce matches nanbanzuke well, but I used mayonnaise instead, because I didn't want to make tartar sauce.

This is hubby's bento nikudon.  Sweet & soy seasoned teriyaki pork, tamagoyaki, simmered carrot, sauteed siitake, broccoli sprout.  Nikudon is rice topped with sauteed pork, a kind of donburi.  Donburi is rice in a bowl, which is topped with a dish.  It does not take a lot of time to make donburi.  So I often make it when I have little time.

Snow has accumulated outside!!

ハムカツ弁当 & サンドイッチ弁当 Ham Cutlet Bento & Sandwich Bento

Today, it's cold and snowing.  Today's menu, the real ham cutlets not satumaage cutlets, mushroom saute ( siitake, maitake, shrimp, ika ), omelet ( green onion & kanikama ).  Simple bento because I had little time.  The rice includes some beans & cereals.



This is Yuppi's bento sandwiches ( ham & thin omelet ).  The core of this ham flowers is cheese & red cabbage sprout.  Easy bento!!

Monokuro Boo Bento モノクロブー弁当

Today's onigiri is MONOKURO BOO.  Its center is soy-flavored okaka.  Today's menu, mayo-chee salmon (I made it using a fillet of fall salmon, spread mayonnaise then sprinkled powder cheese on the salmon then grilled it).  Ham/cheese flowers with red cabbage sprouts.  Deep-fried/candy-coated sweet potato (daigakuimo).  Some veggies (tomatoes, broccoli, sancyu with mayonnaise). 
The Boo's nose holes are made of cheese, and his hair is okaka (dried bonito flakes)!
Fall salmon is especially delicious salmon we can have only during fall to early winter.




Update April 2, 2010
Amazingly, this photo was carried on Flickr BLOG.  I was soooo surprised!  A ton of viewers visited my flickr meanwhile.

焼きそば弁当 Yakisoba Bento

Yakisoba is fried noodle with veggies & pork, which is seasoned with yakisoba-sauce or other seasonings.  I made this one with cabbage, pork, ika ( squid ), shrimp, and yakisoba-sauce.  And I put in nira (scallion) omelet, cheese in chikuwa, yellow tomatoes, broccoli and pineapple.  Cheese matches chikuwa very well.  Yakisoba seasoned with yakisoba-sauce or uster-sauce or oyster-sauce is sauce-yakisoba.  I like shoyu-yakisoba and sio-yakisoba (seasoned with only salt) too!
そしてマルちゃんのやき弁maruchan-yakisobaもちょっと好き♥

ビビンバ弁当 Bibimbap Bento

Bibimbap is a Korean style dish in a bowl.  The bowl contains rice topped with namul ( boiled and seasoned veggies ) & meat & egg.  I made with soy sprout, spinach, carrot, very thin omelet & sauteed pork.  They each are seasoned with salt, garlic-powder, sesame oil, soy & sugar.  And my original apple bunnies.  Bibimbap is a nutritionally balanced dish, and besides, the harmony of rice & ingredients is so nice!  I'm sure It's the great invention by Korean.  Add gochujang ( Korean chili paste ) and mix thoroughly before eating.

ビビンバを作りました。
本物はもっと具が入ってるんだけどお弁当用なのでシンプルです。
ビビンバはこれひとつで栄養のバランスもばっちりだし
なによりすごくおいしいから偉大な発明だわ。Korean-foodに感謝！！


Let's have!!

Crispy Kinako Doughnuts

Between meals on Sunday, I made Kinako Doughnuts ( this time, doughnut drops ).  Good smelling as includes kinako ( roasted soy flour ).  It has been sold out immediately!!  My doughnut recipe is here.  Add a little more milk if you make drops not ring doughnuts.

Sylvanian Family Are Busy Making Doughnuts

At first I have to prepare ingredients...

roll dough out, and cut with a doughnut cutter....

fry in oil until golden on both sides, and roll in sugar.

Mmmm...crispy and yummy!!

Tofu Soboro Bento & Temarizushi

Soboro is generally made out of minced chicken, but this time I made it using kouya-dofu and egg instead.  Kouya-dofu is dried tofu which is low calorie and much healthier than chicken.  Yuppi completely believed this soboro was REAL chicken soboro while eating this bento, uhihi...  I think this one is my hit!!


How to...
Soak kouya-dofu in tepid water until get soft.  Squeeze lightly then crumble it in a food processor.  Place it in a frying pan, add sugar, mirin, soy-sauce, dashi-powder and beaten egg.  Then stir-fry it well.  Done!! 
Rice is under the soboro teddy. 

By the way, making cute charaben is troublesome work for me.  Ossan-bento fits me after all.

これはフェイク鶏そぼ!! 以前鶏挽肉に豆腐を混ぜたそぼろを見破ったゆっぴですがこれはまんまと騙されたわよ、うしし! 高野豆腐は普通の豆腐ほど豆腐フレーバーが強くないのよね。ただ、そのままだとふわふわぱふぱふしてるから卵でまとめるってわけです。^-^*  おとといのゆっぴの誕生日になにを作ろうか迷ってたけどけっきょくてまり寿司を作りました。ケーキはゆっぴのリクエストでケーキ屋さんから買って来たものです。まあこの付属品が子供心をくすぐるのよねぇ。。。手作りの方が絶対おいしいのに!  そう言う私も子供の頃にはバタークリーム＆コーティングチョコレートで飾りが乗っかったクリスマスケーキに胸躍らせたものでした。


Temari-zushi for Birthday Dinner.


Happy Birthday Yuppi ♪♪

卵巻き弁当 Egg Maki-zushi Bento

Today's Menu

Tamago-maki & Sancyu (Korean lettuce)

Yakitori (sauteed chicken)

Tomato & Radish sprout

Sweetie

Very simple!

This tamago-maki is made of vinegared rice, egg crepe (thin cooked egg), shrimp boiled & seasoned with sesame-mayonnaise.  Yakitori is seasoned with soy & sugar.  I'm not satisfied with taste of this tamago-maki, but Hubby and Yuppi said repeatedly " Yum, this! "

Today is my daughter Yuppi's birthday.  Just ten years ago she was born in the early morning when snow fell.  Well, what am I going to make for feasts...

ついにゆっぴが二桁台になりました。
大台です、花のティーンエイジャーです。
４年生にもなるとだんだん手がかからなくなる反面、
習い事が多くなって母もなにかと大変になりました。
とりあえず、元気に育ってくれた事に感謝!!
これからもその向上心を忘れずにがんばって欲しい。
母はいつでも応援しているぞ!!

むすめっこ弁当 My kid's Bento

My daughter is starved whenever she arrives back home from school.

She says " Mama I'm hungry!! Give something. "

I say " Hey! you did have a school lunch, didn't you? "

So I have to make her bento too.

She has a meal four times a day, has a school lunch each day though.

Syougayaki Pork ( Sauteed pork ) seasoned with grated ginger, soy & sugar.

Simple Boiled Egg.

Purple Daikon ( Radish ) Salad.

Grilled Salty Salmon.

Tsukune ( Minced chicken saute )

Negi ( Leek ) Omelet

Potato Salad

Ham & Egg Roll

 I tried making a face of Tenorikuma.

But it became another bear.  What bear this is!!